ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A well-coordinated attack involving gunmen and an explosives-packed van reduced a police building to rubble in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday.
The scene of an apparent suicide car bomb attack on a police building in Lahore on May 27.
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Amid the confusion and the chaos in Pakistan's second-largest city, various officials offered conflicting casualty counts -- with almost all agreeing that at least 23 were killed. Most were police officers and staffers.
The blast also wounded more than 250, with one hospital -- Sir Ganga Ram, itself damaged by the explosion -- alone treating 128 victims.
Authorities expected the death toll to rise as rescue workers pick through twisted metal and other debris, looking for more bodies. Watch more on the attack »
The attack comes amid a Pakistani military offensive to remove militants from their haven in the northwestern part of the country.
Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistan Taliban, had threatened to target major Pakistani cities if the operations did not cease.
"The enemies of Pakistan are trying their very best to use every venue to destabilize the country," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters Wednesday.
The blast occurred on Mall Road near the city police headquarters and the high court. It is one of Lahore's busiest areas.
A passenger van, laden with explosives, broke through a security barrier and was headed toward the police building when guards opened fire to stop it, said Lahore's district coordination officer, Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta.
The two sides exchanged gunfire, with the attackers hurling grenades, said Faisal Gulzar, a deputy police superintendent. Watch rescue workers respond to the scene »
The van exploded before it could reach the building. It was carrying an estimated 100 kg (220 pounds) of explosives, Bhutta said.
The impact was immense, with the targeted building collapsing. It housed the city's rapid response team, which is dispatched during emergencies.
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At least 50 people were thought to have been inside the two-story building at the time, said police spokesman Ray Nazar Hayat.
The police headquarters that sits adjacent to the building was also damaged, with motorcycles from a nearby dealership strewed about and charred by the heat.
The roof of four operating rooms caved at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, with 40 medical staff members suffering minor wounds.
Police waved away onlookers in vain. Many of them jumped over the collapsed walls of the destroyed building to look for survivors. Semi-conscious officers in blood-stained uniforms were pulled from under wooden planks.
Immediately after, police arrested two suspects, said City Commissioner Khusro Pervez.
Local television showed the men being led away by a phalanx of officers.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, with suspicion falling on the beleaguered Islamic militants in the northwest who had vowed revenge.
"We're doing our best," Malik, the interior minister, said of the offensive in the northwest. "Please do not forget we're in a state of insurgency. It's a fight for our survival. We had two choices: We surrender our country or we save it for our next generation."
Lahore is Pakistan's cultural capital, far removed from the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam that is embraced in the north of the country, which borders Afghanistan.
Still, it has sporadically been swept into widening Islamist violence that grips the country.
In March, gunmen hurled grenades and opened fire on officers at a police training center, killing at least seven cadets.
The same month, gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying members of the Sri Lankan national cricket team on their way to a stadium for a match. The attack wounded at least eight members of the team and killed a driver and six Pakistani police officers.
"Everywhere in the city is insecurity," Haris Nadeem, a student in Lahore, said Wednesday. "You never know when a blast is going to occur or where. A shopping center? A government office?"
Still, said Saleem Khan, residents forge ahead.
"We will avoid places when they are crowded, but we can't change everything," he said. "We can't stop going out of our houses. Life has to go on."
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